Big B’s Tantrums!!!

Big B wants the Presidential Suite of the I T C Sonar Bangla for his stay during the shoot of the film ' The Last Lear' in Kolkata and special deluxe suites in the same hotel for his staff members including his man Friday Pravin, make-up man Deepak Sawant, dietician and physical trainer. He had made these conditions very clear before starting the current shooting spell with the director Rituparno Ghosh. These starry tantrums from a person like Amitabh Bachchan gave sleepless nights to producer Arindam Chaudhary, who is otherwise a very strict person with his economics.

As a well-informed source reveals, ' Chaudhary was flabbergasted when he heard Mr Bachchan's demands. Ideally, he would have preferred that Mr Bachchan's coterie stay in a lesser grade hotel or at the very least in cheaper rooms in the same hotel. Chaudhari could have tried to reason with or bargain had it been any other actor, but he had to succumb to Mr Bachchan's demands.'

Though because of Big B's stature, producer Arindam Chaudhary kept mum on the issue and did as desired by the Bachchan but he made his displeasure known to the director Rituparno Ghosh. However, the director advised him to overlook the matter as there were very few dates with him for the shooting and if Big B got annoyed, the whole schedule would go haywire.

According to hotel staff at the time of Bachchan's demand, the Presidential Suite was occupied by the princess of Thailand Maha Chakri Sirindhorn but as soon as she vacated the suite, Big B moved in. His staff members too were given the deluxe rooms and special suites in the same hotel thereby causing a huge loss to Arindam's pocket.

' The Last Lear' which is being made by Arindam's Planman Media is based on Utpal Dutt's Bengali play ' Aajker Shah Jahan.' Big B is playing the part of a fading Shakespearean actor and has in other roles Preity Zinta, Arjun Rampal, Divya Dutta and Shefali Shah. The film is a tribute to Utpal Dutt.